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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
 UW's chances improving for Gordon?
By Joe Kaiser

 Today, Recruiting Nation's Adam Finkelstein listed Washington as one of the teams that benefited most from ESPN's recent player rankings update. That's only one piece of the puzzle, though, as there's reason to believe the momentum could help the Huskies reel in another big fish before all is said and done.

That big fish, as you probably are well award, is Aaron Gordon (San Jose, Calif/Archbishop Mitty High). Gordon is ESPN's No. 4 overall recruit in 2013 and considered one of the elite players in the class, continually drawing comparisons to a young Blake Griffin for his athleticism, explosiveness and high basketball IQ. Gordon is considering UW, Arizona, Kentucky and Oregon, and the Huskies have been considered a slight favorite for much of his recruitment. Losing him would be an enormous missed opportunity for Lorenzo Romar's squad, which is on the verge of missing the NCAA tournament for the second-straight season.

According to Finkelstein, though, the recruiting momentum the Huskies have could help their chances.

Adam Finkelstein
Williams-Goss' rise could help UW land Gordon
"Positive headlines are always welcome for college basketball programs, especially when they're of the recruiting variety. But for the University of Washington, the attention that commit Nigel Williams-Goss has generated over the past few weeks, punctuated by his jump up in the ESPN 100 to No. 20 and selection to the McDonald's All American Game, is the type of ammunition the Huskies can use to make their last pitch to Aaron Gordon. The Huskies are battling Kentucky, Arizona and now Oregon in the last lap of Gordon's recruiting race. At this point the fourth-ranked recruit in the country has heard every sales pitch already, but Washington coach Lorenzo Romar is able to let the headlines do the talking for him right now as he sells the possibility of the explosive power forward forming a one-two punch with another of the nation's hottest prospects."